More Cigarette smugglers using RAF AT

[Blue Bottle]

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/17610257.swindon-group-before-court-over-cigarette-and-tobacco-duty-evasion/?ref=fbshr&fbclid=IwAR3r06CQ7QrODUZcEUfDCqxfk3WrSQYvGJ4yalNpUUEx5lcNw3q ISf5liJU

[PapaDolmio]

Ooops.

Happened before and doubtless will happen again.

I'm sure a lot of ppruners have some additional tax free goods in AT over the years, although admittedly not on quite an industrial scale.

Didn't a similar thing happen at LYE a while ago?

[NutLoose]

Yup packed in ground equipment I believe.

[POBJOY]

Many moons ago 'down west' a Tax Inspector was doing regular ciggy runs to France, and some of his customers were (you guessed) other tax employee's.
Always nice to remind them about it when being questioned about a late return or something similar.

[Jumping_Jack]

At least 3 of those individuals appear to be 29 Regt RLC, so Movs Spt and Posties (both of which are at RAF Northolt)

[MPN11]

I recall in the 60s a Canberra from Cyprus to Strubby being ‘pinged’ for substantial importation of Kokkinelli and tobacco. I don’t recall the outcome. I suspect it has been going on for nearly a century! :)

[Old-Duffer]

Ah but then there was the 'trap' for the pain in the ass customs man!!!

It was 'dropped in' that lots of goodies were coming into the UK in a returning Shack from Gibraltar, possibly concealed in the elsans. I need not dwell further on a couple of 'excise men' going through the contents of said elsans, finding nothing and being told to clear up the public health mess they'd left on the grass!!!!!!!!!!!!

O-D

[oldmansquipper]

JACKANORY TIME - More Fake News?

Back in the day, the worlds premier recce and oldest fixed wing Squadron were on exchange to a NATO base up Norf from their home base. There were Two hercs in support, No1 had the ground equipment and some groundcrew. No2 had the duty free and a few more groundcrew.
On arrival at the noggy field, the Hercs were unloaded into an empty hangar. The base commander came to the hangar to welcome the Squadron. The ground equipment was parked outside but the duty free....nearly a Hercules full... was stacked in the middle of the hangar.

The base commander addressed the troops troops and said:

"Tommorow morning at 10:30 the customs officials from Oslo will conduct a surprise inspection of this hangar looking for illegal imports of duty free alcohol and tobacco - I expect they will find only a single box of whiskey in the centre of the hangar and will not check any of the offices around the edge. The whiskey will be confiscated. Welcome to RNoAF Ry**e, gentlemen"

Of course, this is just a story......fake news, fake news.

[sharpend]

I recall in the 60s a Canberra from Cyprus to Strubby being ‘pinged’ for substantial importation of Kokkinelli and tobacco. I don’t recall the outcome. I suspect it has been going on for nearly a century! :)

Well, having flown Canberras in Cyprus in the 60s, this went on. I recall at least 2 engineers being caught smuggling contraband into the UK hidden in empty tip tanks. I do however remember being bounced by customs in the UK once who wanted to search my Canberra B15. I told the customs chap that if he pulled that yellow and black handle on the pilot seat he might find something interesting on the end..

Don't ask what happened on VC10s :)

[Wrathmonk]

Don't ask what happened on VC10s

From the previous thread on a similar topic I would suggest nothing illegal as they had the

'blank cheque and honesty box' system at Brize

which I'm sure was used 100% of the time.......:)

[BEagle]

I used the 'blank cheque and honesty box' system once at Brize. It was Christmas holiday time and the cheque was never cashed - so I guess they gave me a little present!

A few people might have been a little inaccurate with the value of their personal purchases, but I don't recall hearing of anyone being stupid enough to try smuggling. At least, not on 101 Sqn. But once I asked an Oxford CAA examiner if he could do my civil FI revalidation test after he'd finished for the day - to which he agreed. He turned up in his dark blue NATO pullover with 4 gold bars and came over to the Flying Club. Which at the time was right next to the Air Cargo hangar. This caused mayhem amongst the Movers, so I asked their genial Flt Sgt what was the problem. "They think that the senior customs officer from Heathrow has just turned up to direct his staff to do a rummage of the hangar". "Shall I ask him to take off his captain's rank slides?", I asked. "Please don't do that sir, my lot are panicking and giving the hangar a good tidying up - I've been waiting for them to do that for months!".

But some fork lifts were seen carrying clinking cardboard boxes off to various other storage areas.....:(

Some people are mind-blowingly stupid though. I was sitting on the patio at Akrotiri OM once and couldn't avoid hearing a loud mouthed Hercules navigator bragging about the profits he'd made selling 2 x 1.75 litre jugs of Vodka every time he came back from some exercise trips. Bought in a BX for low price and sold to the locals back in the UK....

Sorry - as was often said "It ain't worth my pension!".

Another criminal trick I heard about was something which went on at Dulles. After crew-in, some mover would open the cargo door and close it again "It wasn't properly shut". When the aircraft landed at Brize, the conspirator would be first to open the cargo door to retrieve whatever his crony had hidden at Dulles....

Always be suspicious if a door light comes on briefly and goes out again after the steps have been taken away, was my advice... Phonepatch ahead and get the RAFP to meet the jet, if necessary.

[Clunk60]

At it again eh Beagle, bashing other fleets and Sqns with your holier-than-thou attitude. It must have been very difficult being so perfect through out your career.

[BEagle]

Not 'bashing other fleets and Sqns' at all - just one stupid, loud-mouthed idiot who was a disgrace to the C130 fleet...

[Clunk60]

In your pious opinion of course.

[BEagle]

I do not tolerate, liars, cheats or thieves. If that makes me pious in your opinion, then so be it.

[Clunk60]

Then, according to your ivory tower morales, based on the last 2 or 3 years, democracy in the UK is dead.

[sharpend]

Now now boys... we are all sinners. Well I was :)

[sharpend]

Mind you, talking of customs at Brize, it was the custom (excuse the pun) that on most AT arrivals the crew were cleared customs onboard. The crew filled in the customs chit before landing, stating what they had or had not to declare, then the Captain countersigned. Before anyone was allowed off the aircraft the customs officer had to look at the form and clear the crew. Sometimes they would ask to see what the individual had imported. On one such occasion, the naughty co-pilot added an item to the declaration made by a brand new and rather naive young female steward. He wrote 'Sexual aid' and slipped into her handbag a suitable object. The customs official cleared the whole crew, but asked the young lady to see the said object. She went bright red and even brighter when opening her hardback to reveal what had be cruelly placed there. No, I was not that CO, just the Captain :)

[NutLoose]

Ahh Brize Customs..... Used to board before us, open briefcase, put in lunch from galley, pick up honesty chits and depart, never ever saw the movers open the freight doors before us, as we never let anyone near until we had put the pins in. I do remember the new young mover being told to put the engine blanks in the fwd freight hold, asking where it was he was told walk down the right hand side until you find an opening and pop them in there, he did, sadly the door was shut so the first opening he found was above the main gear doors and the blanks were duly slung in to sail serenely back to earth when the gear was retracted.

[Krystal n chips]

On the theme of "once upon a time ".....in Germany. Think of this as being more a free lance entrepreneur operation rather than industrial scale.

The American BX at Bruggen kindly provided crates of King Edwards cigars. Responding to customer demand at Gut, 431 MU's "scruffy junior airmen " as one contributor is inclined to disparagingly describe us, would duly acquire a crate for both individuals and, shock!, horror ! both the Sgts and OM alike and some of you may well have been the beneficiaries here.....the profit...I know, but that's capitalism for you, being DM100.....transport costs being alleviated thanks to said crates being conveyed in / on 431's MT section......happy customers, happy airmen...nobody batted an eyelid at this well established supply chain, until, that is, a Canberra crew pitched up one day.

Said Canberra Sqn were fairly regular customers and enjoyed a harmonious relationship with their suppliers. but, alas, all this nearly changed

. One newly arrived Sgt on the MU was "somewhat pious "..... and beyond help.....anybody who presses creases in his immaculate denims, and on an MU to boot, tends to stand out as they say....he followed us to the Line hut at Gut, and then duly proclaimed he was taking disciplinary action for the "misappropriation of RAF property "..to wit, our use of MT.....at which point, the Canberra Capt on the day enquired "Who's this (rude words ) ! ? " ....followed by a C/T rapidly emerging and kindly guiding our leader away before, ahem, "offering him some words of advice "....which may have carried beyond the confines of the room he had been guided to.....more happy customers, along with sympathy from said Capt as to us being lumbered with that ( more rude words )

Business returned to normal thereafter....

[oldmansquipper]

There is a reference to 101 Sqn earlier. Something about 'nothing illegal' etc?

Well, when 101 were on Ex sunspot in Malta (Yes, yes, Vulcan days, I know and it could have been 50 or 44 I guess) IIRC there was an aircraft returned to Waddo which was impounded for a comprehensive customs examination. Despite the rear cockpit being full of some very sensitive ECM equipment, the 'officials' removed some of the equipment control panels to discover several cartons of 200 ciggies taped behind them. The cartons were wrapped in bodge tape and camouflaged to resemble the 'black boxes' associated with ECM gear. Despite being chaperoned by security cleared bods, the officials had gone straight to them....

At the same time all aircraft carried 3 packed brake parachutes on detachment positions or ranger fights. One installed, one in the nose and the third in the pannier. The idea being that if an aircraft was diverted on return, the crew chief could fit the replacement from the nose, the streamed one would replace the one in the pannier which went up into the nose. Great plan. Worked well for years The guys packing chutes at Luqa for the detachment knew this and some of them decided to pack some 'extras' into the 3rd chutes as they would be removed from the aircraft nose on arrival back at base even if a diversion had taken place.

All went well (for years allegedly) until a Jet diverted into Italy. Streamed on arrival and had the chute from the nose fitted on the crew chiefs AF. Still not a problem. However at the time there was a temporary 'OOP installation' period imposed on all brake chutes (something to do with doors freezing shut?) whereby all installed chutes were deemed unserviceable and had to be changed after a certain period.

Suffice it to say, rectification of the jet took longer than the mandated period. Of course, the crew chief did his job and replaced the timex chute. The jet later returned to Waddo and performed a faultless chute assisted landing.

The runway inspection teams thought christmas had come early.

[brakedwell]

A long time ago Lyneham customs threw the book at a Gib Shackleton crew for smuggling, watches I think. Three of the excise men lived in the officers mess and were part of the regular bar crowd. Until they clobbered the Shack crew when they were effectively sent to Coventry by 99 sqn aircrew.
A couple of weeks after the break down in communications when I was a 2nd pilot on the Hastings standby crew we were called out to fly an Admiral from Northolt to Lossiemouth to carry out an annual inspection.

After the old Hastings clattered to a halt abeam the red carpet and station commander the AQM called out for help to open the jammed rear door. Our renowned navigator responded quickly and managed to open it with one hard shove. Standing in the ledge in the open doorway PS surveyed the assembled men in navy blue and gold and declared in a very loud voice: “Fu*king hell, CUSTOMS”

[Pontius Navigator]

Ahh Brize Customs..... Used to board before us, open briefcase, put in lunch from galley, pick up honesty chits and depart,
And at Kinloss too. The crews would fill out two sheets. One, fully compliant with the authorised allowances would be handed in to RAFP for HMC. The other contained everything in the event Mr Bailey from HMC met the aircraft. On one occasion he did.

We had a routine. I would meet and greet at the door and he would set up 'office ' on the Jez launchers. We then ensured that all the squeaky clean went first with Me Bailey just nodding them through.

Then came the AEO. "I'll just check this case". He opened the case, packed with undeclared goodies, Mr Bailey moved these and continued to rummage until he found the couple of items that had been declared. The AEO had gone white. Mr Bailey out everything back, shut the case and said OK.

Message received and understood.

A couple of years later we had a couple of returning aircraft a few hours apart. Mr Bailey was accompanied by a shiney new CO. After that aircraft was cleared the new sprog said he would wait and clear the next aircraft. He might have had overtime in mind. Mr Bailey however would have none of it; he knew us and wasn't going to upset the apple cart with unnecessary prosecutions.